TWO WIRRAL SUCCESS STORIES....

(1) WIRRAL GUITAR FESTIVAL

 

AFTER 18 years of welcoming musicians from across the world, Wirral is celebrating its most successful guitar festival.

Renamed the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain while it was still in its infancy, the annual event has become hugely popular, this year featuring former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman.

It ended yesterday having achieved record-breaking results, with the highest audience attendance ever, occupancy levels increasing by 40% and many sell-out shows.

Rob Smith, the event’s director, said he and his team are already looking forward to building on its success and are planning next year’s festival.

Mr Smith started off the month-long festival in 1989. It features guitarists playing all types of music at venues across Wirral and, by the early 1990s, it was renamed to take into account its international popularity.

He said: “This year we were able to programme earlier and secure more, and bigger, acts.

“As an 18th birthday present, it cold not have been better.

“When I first started this, I never expected it would carry on for 18 years. There was no other festival of its kind in the country focused on guitar-playing.

“We put on performers of all guitar styles, bringing in players from all over the world.”

The early days of the festival established a serious and committed audience for guitar music, and offered players within all genres the opportunity to be listened to in intimate surroundings with an informed and enthusiastic audience.

Mr Smith added: “Although we were hopeful that the festival would be successful and put Wirral on the map, I don’t think that we were quite prepared for the enthusiasm of the players, audiences and journalists in supporting what we were trying to achieve.

“Then came the festivals in Nottingham, Dundee and the rest, so we renamed it in the third or fourth year the International Festival.

“It’s something we should be proud of. It’s not in London, Manchester, Birmingham or even Liverpool, but Wirral.”

This year, the festival continued to offer a wide range of guitar music, with some of the finest players in the world, including artists such as Bill Wyman & The Rhythm Kings, Nils Lofgren, Chris Spedding, Robben Ford, Kelly Joe Phelps, Nick Harper, Martin Taylor & Guy Barker and, closer to home, the magnificent Modjango and Gary Murphy.

This year the festival announced jazz guitarist Martin Taylor – described as “the acoustic guitarist of his generation” by America’s Acoustic Guitar Magazine – as its new patron.

 

 

(2) REGION REAPS 'OPEN' REWARDS

 

THE international exposure brought to the region by the summer’s Open golf tournament in Wirral has been described as “almost immeasurable” by tourism leaders. New research published today reveals Merseyside’s hosting of the most successful Open Golf Championship ever staged in England gave the region an overwhelmingly positive media profile worth millions of pounds. Wirral council leaders said the impact on tourism and inward investment of the Open would be felt for years to come in the borough and farther afield. Cllr Steve Foulkes, Labour leader of the council, said: “The response exceeds our wildest expectations. It’s one of the best returns we’ve ever had.” Cabinet member for regeneration Pat Hackett said the subsequent announcement of the £4.5bn Peel Holdings plan for the borough, along with developing plans for a “golf resort” in Hoylake showed “just some of the benefits of hosting the tournament”. Cllr Hackett: “This builds on Wirral entrepreneurial ambitions and bears out our own evaluation of the event to date which has opened up many opportunities across the borough. “The resulting economic activity, investment and jobs this will generate will be felt for years to come. “It’s also important to note that those in the most deprived wards benefit from this and are not left behind and treated as a bystander watching in awe as massive buildings and skyscrapers go up.” Detailed analysis of how British-based broadcasters and publishers reported the event staged at Hoylake’s Royal Liverpool Golf Club in July, reveals that overwhelmingly positive messages about the region and the event reached huge audiences in the UK alone. Key findings include: l The value of UK newspaper space devoted to coverage exceeded £4.2m l As well as hole-by-hole coverage of the golf, UK broadcasters devoted more than £1.25m worth of airtime to other events at Hoylake l 92% of UK TV and Radio coverage monitored was positive Tourism and investment body The Mersey Partnership, Wirral Council and the Northwest Regional Development Agency commissioned today’s report. They wanted to know how the event influenced perceptions and opinions of the region, and analysts TNS Media Intelligence were briefed to monitor coverage dealing with all aspects of the event other than the actual golf itself. Martin King, director of tourism at TMP, said: “After winning the 2006 Open, Tiger Woods described it as one of the best Championships ever staged. “What this research does is help us all understand the enormous added value brought to Wirral, Merseyside and the wider Northwest by staging a truly world-class event in such a successful way. “Really positive messages and images portraying the attractiveness of this part of Merseyside filled the airwaves and pages of our newspapers for more than a week. These findings tell us the real value of that exposure – but this is only the start of the good news. “We have not yet assessed the international impact. The same images and messages were beamed all over the world. “The total value of the positive exposure in terms of international media profile is almost immeasurable.” He said they were now looking forward to similar levels of interest in 2008 when Sefton and Royal Birkdale hosts The Open again. All coverage monitored was classified under a range of topics which included art and culture, inward investment and tourism. Emma Degg, head of tourism and marketing for Wirral council said the report “confirms that The Open Championship in July firmly placed Wirral on the national and international map”. TNS Media Intelligence studied 113 individual items of broadcast coverage and almost 800 separate newspaper articles. Peter Mearns, director of marketing and communications at the NWDA, said the positive coverage will not only benefit Wirral and Merseyside, but also strengthen the image of England’s Northwest. He added: “Developing sport is an excellent way of improving the image, economy and tourism potential of the Northwest.” The report concludes: “The region enjoyed high impact exposure during breaks in play when the coverage focused on areas surrounding the course and commentators provided positive comments about what was being shown.”